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3 Reasons to Sell Cisco

There are lots, but here are three biggies.

A sputtering economy, implosions at financial institutions, or just plain bad management -- on any given day, investors can name a number of reasons to sell a stock. Yet while panic is never beneficial to investors, it's good practice to play devil's advocate with investments from time to time.

Members of the 115,000-person Motley Fool CAPS community have weighed in on more than 5,400 stocks, sharing bullish and bearish opinions alike.

In the case of tech bellwether Cisco(NASDAQ:CSCO), 7,715 members have chimed in on its chances of success. I've already plucked out some of the bullish rationale backing Cisco today, so here are three counterpoints to consider, courtesy of CAPS:

Corporate spending squeeze. While Hewlett-Packard(NYSE:HPQ) is laying off nearly 25,000 workers to hit profit targets, top equipment and component suppliers Dell(NASDAQ:DELL), EMC(NYSE:EMC), and Seagate(NASDAQ:STX) are all taking hits as many investors expect a significant slowdown in spending by corporations. Companies like Intel(NASDAQ:INTC) are somewhat buffered with a good portion of their business coming from consumers, but Cisco is much more dependent on big-ticket corporate buyers.

Nimble competition. Some CAPS members see Cisco's routers getting dated, and competitors like Juniper Networks(NASDAQ:JNPR) coming out with fresh hardware that is showing good traction. Though Cisco has overcome threats in the past, some see Cisco losing its edge in areas of its product portfolio.

U.S. lead dwindling. While a global player, the majority of Cisco's revenue still comes from the U.S., which, according to recent studies, is falling behind other countries in broadband quality and investment in technology. In her book Closing the Innovation Gap, former Cisco exec Judy Estrin even says we're benefiting from work done decades ago and "not planting any more seeds" for future innovation. Some Cisco bears in CAPS echo concerns about foreign competition.

Of course, Cisco has survived and thrived despite dozens of obstacles to date. But the importance of questions about whether the company will continue to do so profitably is why CAPS is such a great resource to augment your own analysis.

To see what the very best CAPS members are saying now about Cisco, just click on over to Motley Fool CAPS and have a look. It's all free, and open to your opinion.

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Fool contributorDave Mockcan trace his desire to be an inventor back to grade school, when he aspired to develop wedgie-thwarting underpants. He owns shares of Intel. Dell and Intel are Inside Value recommendations. The Fool'sdisclosure policycan't keep you from stepping in dog poop, but will help you clean it off your shoes.